by James Tow
and made some sort of profit if we filled our tanks there. Ridiculous.
We tried filling up at a small gas station down the street from the Citgo, but we were not welcome. We didn’t realize the Humvee trucks were some sort of universal symbol of The Army of the Apocalypse. They came after us with guns and knives—threatening to cut off our balls. We didn’t hesitate to leave.
Fifteen minutes later, we finally found an abandoned gas station, and we took our chance. Gabriel, Chris, and I waited and watched by our cars, as the rest of the gang filled up the trucks.
“We should stay the night,” I recommended.
“In this area?! Are you insane?” Chris exclaimed.
“I was actually thinking the same thing. Find a small building we can stay at, and rest up,” Gabriel agreed.
“But I thought we were making a one way trip there,” Chris said.
“It’s not like we’re on a tight schedule. We still have three days until ‘The Games’ start—might as well take advantage of that,” I interjected.
“But what are we supposed to do?” Chris said with worry.
“Sleep, play with your Hot Wheels, masterbate—whatever it is that you do at night,” Gabriel said and I laughed.
“I feel like someone will stab us in our sleep,” Chris said while examining the area. Several people were walking by, and it was clear how they felt about us. A couple of fat chicks walked by, staring, giving all of us nasty looks. An old man—who barely had any teeth, walked hunched over and smelled of old sweaty shirts and garbage—came from around the gas station and walked right past the three of us. He inhaled, and the loud noise of the phlegm circulating through his system made me gag. He spit the large ball of snot at our feet, and we all jumped. Gabriel and Chris just stared back at the old man, but I was fixated on the ball of snot we just dodged. It was black with some dark green and yellow.
“Ugh! Take some vitamins,” I told him and the dirty man walked off.
Alyse walked through the glass doors of the gas station, holding a white box.
“Here are your Twinkies,” she said and tossed the box to me.
“Awesome,” I said.
“Don’t know if they’re any good though—they’re a couple years out of date,” she told me.
“Don’t care,” I replied.
“You’re about as dirty as that old man,” Chris said laughing.
“No, he’s just a fat bastard,” Gabriel said. He walked around to the GTO and got in the driver’s seat. “We should get moving. Trying to find an empty lot won’t be easy,” he said.
“What’s he talking about?” Alyse asked as we walked back to our car and Chris back to his gang.
“We’re staying the night,” I told her and she was exstatic.
“Yes!” she yelled. “Finally, I get to sleep in a bed. And who knows…maybe I won’t have to sleep alone,” she said.
My heart started racing, “What do you mean by that?” I asked but she kept walking, laughing to herself, and hopped into the Mustang.
We were driving around for forty-five minutes looking for a place to stay. Most of the spots we did find were out of the question. They were either occupied with people who didn’t look like they wanted company or people who we didn’t want to spend the night with. Eventually, we found a series of run-down apartment complexes which were positioned on a steep hillside of a street. We stopped and turned into the first apartment building—which was blocked off by a steel gate. Chris pulled ahead and drove through the gate with his Humvee—loud and obnoxious, but effective.
When we made it inside the gated parking lot, we all filed out of our vehicles to examine our choice of stay—not that we had much of a choice. It was a typical, three story, brick building—steel stairs leading to each floor. Green doors with metal numbers marked the rooms. We walked around to see there were three other buildings, like the one we just analyzed, postioned in a square—and in the center of the square was an empty pool.
“Not too bad,” I said, and I received several unapproving looks. A man, standing on the third floor balcony, stepped out through his open door—wearing a red bath robe.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here? Leave at once!” he yelled. We just stared at him, and begun unloading our vehicles of items we were taking with us to our rooms. “Did you hear me?!” said the old man. “I said…My fence! What have you done to my fence?!”
Gabriel stepped forward, looking up at the man.
“It was in my way,” he said. The old man spit, and it fluttered down—barely missing Gabriel.
“There’s a reason why that fence is there! To keep assholes, like you, out!” he said, yelling at Gabriel.
Gabriel started laughing and walked back to the GTO—grabbing the bolo blade from the passenger seat. “That was the problem. The gate was saying ‘no, no, no’ and I was saying ‘yes, yes, yes.’” He started walking up the flights of stairs, “And, looking at your precious fence, you can see what I do when something is telling me ‘no.’” The old man was acting tough with his arms crossed over his chest—waiting for Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” I started to call out to him as he reached the third floor.
“Oh don’t worry Paul. I just want to show him my sword,” he said with a smile. This isn’t good.
“What’s your blood type?” Gabriel asked the old man and held up the blood stained blade. “I’m collecting them, you see. I have quite the collection.”
The old man started walking backwards as Gabriel limped forward. It was probably the mixture of scars, the blood on the blade, and the look in his eye that made the old man second guess his masculinity.
“I think all I need is AB-,” Gabriel said and the man reached for his door and quickly hid behind it. Gabriel finally stopped, and turned back around for the stairs.
I let out a sigh of relief, and Alyse was staring at me.
“What? He was joking,” I reassured her.
“What if he wasn’t? You were down here and couldn’t stop him,” she said.
“He was joking,” I scoffed.
“Ok. So which room are you going to sleep in?” she said and walked for the first room, on the far left of the bottom floor. She opened the door, walked through, gave me a smile and slammed the door. Damn you and the entire female gender.
Gabriel and I occupied the room next to Alyse. Through the door was the living room, and to the right was the tiny kitchen area. Passed the living room was the bathroom sink, divided by a cheap wooden door. To the right of the sink was the bathroom, and to the left was the bedroom—where Gabriel stopped for some rest. I sat on the hard couch, bored out of my mind. I had strong urges to walk over to Alyse’s room, but I didn’t want to push it.
A knock on my door got me to my feet. I looked through the eyehole to see Spenser, staring at the eyehole with a huge grin on his face. I opened the door.
“What’s up?” I asked halfheartedly.
“We went through, and searched several of the rooms and we found a Playstation 3! We’re all in my room just playing. Want to join?”
“Sounds like fun,” I lied. “But I think I’m going to call it a night. The trip really wore me out.”
“Oh,” he said disappointed. “Well, then I’ll see you tomorrow,” and he walked away. I shut the door, and not even three steps toward the couch, someone was knocking. I looked through the eyehole and it was Spenser again.
“We have Madden. Want to play some football?” he asked through the door.
“No Spenser,” I replied and walked away from the door. Again, someone was knocking at the door.
Irritated, I swung the door open and Alyse stood there with a deck of cards and a bottle of Jägermeister.
“Well if you’re going to be like that,” she said and started to walk away. I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.
“I found these in the front office,” she said putting the cards and the bottle of alcohol on the living room table.
“Found what?” Gabriel asked as
he limped through the bedroom door. “Ah, going to play some cards?”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to kick your ass in some poker.”
“Bring it on,” he said and brought two of the kitchen chairs to the table—giving one to me and sitting down in the other. Alyse sat on the couch.
“Any variation of poker you two wanted to play?” She asked.
“Just make it five card draw,” I said. Gabriel started emptying his pockets of loose cash—throwing it on the table.
“Poker isn’t fun if we don’t have anything to gamble on,” he said and Alyse and I threw the money we had in our pockets onto the table. Gabriel had over five thousand thrown onto the table.
“Where did you get all that?!” I asked surprised.
“Bergstrom,” he said. “I’m hoping we’ll run into an Arms Dealers.”
“Why didn’t he give me any?” I asked with a sense of rejection.
“He did. I just kept your half,” he said flatly.
“What the…!”
“I’m not going to spend your half. I’m just keeping it together,” he said reassuringly.
Someone knocked on the door, and Chris stepped through. “I don’t feel like watching them play video games,” he said. “Mind if I…Oh! Deal me in!” he said when he noticed Alyse dealing the cards.
“It’s a fifty dollar buy in,” she said teasingly.
“I don’t have any money, but I have music,” he said holding up an iPod and a pair of speakers.
“He’s in,” I said immediately.
We were all sitting around the living room table, playing cards, and passing around the Jägermeister—except for Gabriel. He was
